Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (DS) Review

Posted by Jordan Williams on 08.03.2006

Come with me as I take you through swashbuckling pirates on one of the seven seas as they hunt down Davey Jones's Loc--...wait. This is a movie game...arrr.

Game: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Console: Nintendo DS
Players: 1-2 (multicard Wi-Fi play)


Well, it's summer. Do you know what that means? That means tons of summer blockbuster movies, sequels, and our favorite: the video game version.

So, here we are with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (I am going to get tired of typing that), which is the sequel to the blockbuster that came out last year. Now, it's been a rule of thumb that games based off movies tend to suck. Hard. Very hard. Sadly, this is almost the case with Pirates for the DS. While it is not absolutely horrible, it doesn't do much to present itself other than as just a playable version of the movie. Seeing as I have never seen the movie, I am going to review this game as a GAME. The movie will have no bias on me...well, other than the fact that this is a game based off a movie.


Graphics -

While we all know the DS doesn't have a lot of graphical power behind it, we do know that it can at least match the N64. Pirates does a decent job of making a full 3D world to play in with what it's been given. All of the characters are scaled down a tad for whatever reason, resulting in more of a cartoony look than a realistic one. All of the animations are fairly decent, each of the playable characters having unique fight animations and what-not. The problem here is the levels themselves. Tons of invisible walls constantly bar you from exploring further into the 3D environment, and honestly, for it being full 3D, the backgrounds look pretty bad the more you look at them. Given they are varied and take you to new places, they are constantly flickering and have downright horrible textures. It all eventually begins to look like shapes with splotches that loosely resemble the texture they were going for.

The menus are obscenely underwhelming with no opening cut scene at all. Just thrust into a fairly plain menu when you boot up the game. The game is moved along via text and portraits although you can ignore this. If you have seen the movie, you know the plot, and if you haven't seen the movie, the text doesn't really explain what's going on anyway.

Other than the models, the weapons all seem well enough. For a game with so much going on at once, there is rarely any slowdown and everything runs fairly smooth, which is more than I can say for Captain Jack Sparrow's absolutely hilarious running animation.


Gameplay -

Pirates is pretty straightforward. It's a beat-'em-up, no crossbones about it. Simple, pure beat-'em-up. And we all know what the main problem is with beat-'em-ups: they get repetitive. This is Pirates' biggest fault. Early on, you pretty much get the gist of the entire game: Enter Room, Kill Baddies, Move On. That's it, folks. Now, given the hack-and-slash nature keeps the game fun for the first few levels, especially with the slightly destructible and interactive environments and the literal treasure trove of weapons to pick up and wield (for a limited time), it all begins to get muddled into a routine, and then it just gets old. There's a good amount of levels, but after awhile, you lose count because there simply isn't enough there to keep you playing, outside of the story--which is portrayed weakly already. I am sure they expect you to have seen the movie before playing the game.

The buttons are simple. Y attacks, B kicks, X jumps, A is an action button used to interact with the environment, L is a modifier (for stronger attacks), and R is your block and dodge button. L and R together result in a 'Signature Move' which is essentially a special move for your character, ranging from Elizabeth doing some dual cutlass justice, Will throwing a myriad of tomahawks, or Capt. Jack showing why he should never be allowed to hold a pistol. The controls are fairly responsive although the jumping is a tad awkward. Thankfully, you won't jump a lot in this game. Of course, you get more combos unlocked as you play through the game, but only a very small handful of them are actually useful in battle.

The touchscreen isn't used at all during the main gameplay. It's only used for mini-games which are very boring and generic (a simple 'Tap This' mini-game or what-not). There are only three mini-games, and they aren't really fun enough to warrant playing them more than once.

One thing Pirates does offer, however, is Co-Op play via multicard Wi-Fi, and it does mean full co-op. Two characters are on-screen at one time. Although I wasn't able to fully test this feature in my time with the game, I will say that two-player co-op is a nice addition to the game. Sadly, owners of this game are too few and far in-between for it to really be a driving point.

Sound -

As much as I want to say the sound is great in this game, I honestly can't. Sure, the sword clanks sound like sword clanks, but it is all played over a fairly uninspired batch of background music that vaguely mimics the soundtrack of the first movie. The music itself is of good quality, but nothing about it is very noteworthy. It's just the same handful of pirate-y fanfares and horns. Every character has a pretty dead-on impersonator to provide a handful of voice clips, which are of surprisingly good quality, but you hear them so much. There's about eight sound bites for every lead character and only three or so for the enemies. It gets very annoying when you hear "READY TO BRAWL!" for the 10th time as a baddie announces the next wave of lookalikes to destroy.

Lasting Appeal -

Honestly, this game is built for fans of the movie. If you are a fan of the movie, you'll probably love this game. But even THEN, it's really hard to enjoy this game past the first few couple of levels--and that's even IF you are a diehard Depp-aholic. If you manage to make it past the routine that is the gameplay, you will be rewarded with gold, which can be used to purchase concept art, unlockable characters, and weapons (to stay with you always instead of for a limited time). A harder difficulty mode might warrant a replay if you loved the game the first time. You might have to play through it at least once to unlock everything, but after you beat it, it's pretty much done. There's no real reason to pick it up again for an extended period of time, and with the game taking around four or five hours to complete, it's a very short time at that.

Fun Factor -

Given the game's many faults, it is a fun game. This is button-mashing at its most simplistic. Although it will get boring after a while, I guarantee that you will have fun for the first few stages, at least. Co-Op sounds like it would've been a blast if I was able to test it. The mini-games aren't fun in the least; I wouldn't suggest bothering with them. While this isn't a great game for an extended period of time, for what it's worth, it's pretty fun in small doses.

The 411 -

Like most movie games. Pirates boils down to the realm of mediocrity. The game isn't horrible, but it's definitely not great. Simply put, it's a decent rental. If you enjoy the source material, you'll definitely enjoy the game. If you are like me and haven't seen the film, the game will still offer up enough fun for a while. It's decent but just that. Decent.

Graphics	6.5	Decent for the DS, but the backgrounds and the sloppy textures really don't contrast well with the models.
Gameplay	6.5	Hey, what else can you ask for in a hack-and-slash? It's fun while it lasts, just wish it wasn't so shallow. The Mini-games aren't worth mentioning.
Sound	6.0	The music is easily forgettable, and while the soundbites are nice, I wish there were more of them.
Lasting Appeal	7.0	It's a good game, it's a tad too short. But the unlockables ensure at least a second playthrough, after that it's a good time waster.
Fun Factor	8.0	With all of it's problems, it's still a fun game. A little polish would've made it a lot better, but the meat of the game(sans mini-games) are pretty damned fun. Wish I was able to try to Co-op.
Overall	6.5   [ Average ]

Screenshots
All 7 Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest Screenshots